Top 5 confusing song lyrics

Earlier this week I explained my concerns about the Beach Boys. Does Brian Wilson wish that the only girls he meets, wherever he is, are natives of California? Or does he wish that all the girls he meets would relocate to California?

The more I think about it the more common and puzzling the problem seems. So I am opening up the Brian Wilson Prize to all comers. I am looking for ambiguous song lyrics.

Here are my current top five:

1. "But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man and so is Lola" (The Kinks). As an astute Comment Central reader has noticed, Ray Davies isn't entirely clear here. Is Lola a man? Or simply glad that the song's narrator is a man?

2. "No woman, no cry" (Bob Marley). Marley may be saying no to the woman, don't cry. Or does he mean that if he didn't have a woman he wouldn't cry?

3. We don't need no education (Pink Floyd). Do they mean they don't need an education (which appears to be the thrust of the rest of the song)? Or, as this line suggests, that they don't not need one? The confusion is similar to that besetting Mick Jagger and Keith Richards when they report that "(I can't get no) satisfaction" (Rolling Stones)

4. "I hope the Russians love their children too" (Sting). The composer clearly wishes us to get rid of our nuclear weapons. If we did it wouldn't matter whether the Russians loved their children, only if they loved ours. And if we kept our weapons, but the Russians got rid of theirs, it still wouldn't matter if the Russians loved their children. It would only matter if we loved their children. So (unless Sting was broadening out to cover general child welfare all of a sudden) the only circumstances in which it matters if the Russians loved their children would be if there was mutually assured destruction. Which the song is against.

and then there is the classic...

5. "I wish they all could be California girls" (Beach Boys)

I look forward to your contributions.

Comments

[Tom Freeman]

'All you need is love' is a great song, but the lyrics are a bit of a mess. "There's nothing you can do that can't be done" sounds good at first, but the logic of it is the wrong way round. If you can do something, then of course it can be done! The more impressive claim would be "There's nothing that can be done that you can't do"... although that trips off the tongue less well.

[Nick]

I've always wanted to know if in Hallelujah when Leonard Cohen (or Jeff Buckley if you want it by someone who can really sing) says
'But all I've ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya' if he's outdrawing rivals for his lover or his lover himself.

[adam]

Re: Lola. Isn't ambiguity the whole point of the song? It wouldn't be nearly as good a story if you knew which gender s/he was.

How about 'Something changed' by Pulp. It's all about meeting the love of your life, but the first line is "I wrote this song two hours before we met". Doesn't that make everything that follows just a fantasy?

[Tim]

um...Lola is quite clearly a man dressed as a woman. If you don't believe me try singing the song in karaoke in a bar full of beered up Australians. *Shudder*

[Joey]

"We don't need no education" is what it is for a reason. The whole point is that the school system is screwed up, and what they receive as an "education" doesn't amount to much more than students receiving their teacher's "derision." The double negative is exactly what the song needs to drive the point home.

[Tony Francis]

Jimi Hendrix: "Excuse me while I kiss the sky" or "Excuse me while I kiss this guy". I've heard it said that it is the former. But are we really sure?

[Tony Francis]

I was listening to a radio program hosted by Alice Cooper last night. He plays old rock songs, many virtually unknown, then comments. He asked the question: "Phil Collins - what the hell does Abacab mean? The only thing I can think of is a Cab Company called Aba." So what does Abacab mean?

[Steve Dubbin]

Her name was McGill.
She called herself Lil.
But everyone knew her as Nancy.

HUH?

[Roger]

Your photo of Pink Floyd is some years out of sync with the song you are quoting from as the line-up in your photo has Syd Barrett in it who was of course not in the band when they sang that line. And the photo should have David Gilmour in it. Actually as examples go you are scraping the barrel with that one as it's perfectly clear what the demotic double negative means.

[Tina Rhea]

Ventura Highway by America: "Alligator lizards in the air"? I think that's the actual lyric, not a mondegreen.

[Peter Kline]

Bob Dylan - Mac The Finger said to Louis The King,"I've got 40 red, white and blue shoes strings"... Has he just got 40 in all. Or has he got 40 red ones, 40 white ones and 40 blues ones... Is there a message here?

[John Monfries]

What about:

"I shot the sheriff/ But I did not shoot the deputy."

If the man shot the sheriff, why is it a mitigating factor that he did not shoot the deputy?

And: "Everybody's talking / about a new way of walking."

Why would everybody be doing that? And how many ways of walking are there? Were they thinking of the Ministry of Silly Walks?

And the Beatles: "She was just seventeen/ Well you know what I mean."

No, I don't know what they mean; unless all they mean is that she was just seventeen.

And don't get me started on Bob Dylan - "the answer is blowing in the wind." ????

Well, I listened hard to the wind, but I never heard the answer.

This was only one of his weird obscurities.

[Tim]

The one about Sting being confused about Mutually Assured Destruction is just another great example of why we need to keep professional performers off the political stage, and out of the political back rooms as well. Bless them, but don't actually forgive them, for they know not what the hell they do, and they bloody well should.

[Spencer Leigh]

I have been mystified by the opening lines of Bob Dylan's Desolation Row for over 40 years. "They're selling postcards of the hanging" seems simply enough: something reprehensible is being turned into a tourist event, but what about the next line, "They're painting the passports brown". What does a brown passport signify and why paint them? The song offers no clues at all.

[William]

from Rocket Man by Elton John:
Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did

... if you did what? Raise them? And why is he complaining about the lack of nannies on Mars?

[tony]

"up the junction" by squeeze states "this morning at 4.50.." the father took his lover to the hospital to have a child (30 minutes later). he then tells us that the baby was "..within a year a walker" how does he know that the little one will be walking before the year is up? the baby has only just been born! the facts put forward in this song by the narrator are all a bit hazy, mitigated perhaps by the knowledge that he is plastered much of the time. perhaps its a great song because it is so skewed.

[Peter Briffa]

I would submit that "Strangers in the Night" ( no relation to the Frank Sinatra tune ) by Saxon would take some beating.

http://www.mp3lyrics.org/s/saxon/747-strangers-in-the-night/

The first verse sets up the following scenario: It's night, a plane is flying into New York ( Kennedy Airport - we later learn ), low on fuel, and New York City is blacked out because of a power cut. So far, so grim. Oh yes, and the "we" implies this is being sung by the radio operator.
However, verse two. The "we" now becomes two separate individuals, on "separate" flights, who are somehow communicating ( maybe they're the pilots, as this is long before mobile phones existed, let alone that they could be used communicating between two aeroplanes ), who are "going nowhere".
Verse three, though, confuses rather than elucidates. One of the flights is a Scandinavian airline, which flies from Hawaii to New York. ( Unlikely, granted, given that this was written in the seventies. ) Nonetheless, said flight is "coming out of the sun". So our pilot should at least be able to see the runway. Yet, a mere two lines later, he "can't see a thing here in the night".
The next line, the "navigator" ( who he? ) is explaining that they're on the flight path, but that the radio's dead. How, I wonder, does he know they're on the flight path if he can't see the runway, and how's he telling them if the radio's dead?

I could go on.

I've worried about this for nearly thirty years.

[Andy Woodward]

Surely this is no contest? Absolutely any lyric written by Jon Anderson of Yes is going to be not just confusing but incomprehensible

[Dot KING]

How about "I'm like a one-eyed cat peeping in a sea-food store"? "Shake rattle and roll" Bill Haley and the Comets 1950-something. It's not exactly ambiguous, but one of my favourite lines, I use it often, much better than "having a bad hair day"!
ciao ciao

[Steve D'Agostino]

Actually, that’s the point of the song. Lennon is saying you don’t have to do anything “it’s easy, all you need is love”. The line "There's nothing you can do that can't be done" is saying don’t do anything. The “more impressive claim” you suggest is simply not true; it implies that anyone is capable of accomplishing anything.

[pensky]

what about Lady in Red. He bangs on about never seeing you looking so gorgeous, wonderful, lovely etc which leads you to believe he's been with her a number of times before and then he announces he hardly knows her.

[Adam Swansbury]

What about "See Emily Play" by Pink Floyd? Wonderful song, but what on Earth do the lyrics mean:-

"Emily tries, but misunderstands
She often's inclined to borrow somebody's dreams till tomorrow.
There is no other day,
Let's try it another way,
You'll lose your mind and play
Free games for May..
See Emily play".

[Jurriaan Bendien]

The line "There's nothing you can do that can't be done" in Lennon's song is not saying "don’t do anything". Instead it means "There's nothing you can do, that can't be done, copied or reflected by someone else". The implication is: drop your ego, you are in the same boat as (or no better than) everyone else, admit that all you need at this point is love, rather than anything else you could think of, because there is nothing better you can do now, then to focus on "learning how to be you in time" with love. Hence the propagandistic or hypnotic repetitions in the song to bring home this message.

[Ade]

Marc Bolan - 'New York City'

"Did You Ever See A Woman
Coming Out Of New York City
With A Frog In Her Hand"

Er,...me neither.
___
Ade

[Chuck]

If I were a sculptor
But then again, no

Elton John's 1970 hit "Your Song"

[Bev Heron]

Many laughs in the comments thus far!

Now, how do you explain the muddled thinking in the lines from "You Can't Always Get What You Want"?:

She was practiced at the art of deception
Well I could tell by her blood-stained hands

How practiced could she be if she didn't wash her hands after killing someone?

And later:

We decided that we would have a soda
My favorite flavour, cherry red
I sung my song to Mr. Jimmy
And he said one word to me,
and that was dead

Ignoring, for the moment, the fact that cherry red is a color, not a flavor, one must ask: did Mr Jimmy say the word, "Dead"? Or did he say one word and the conversation was dead (because Mr Jimmy was so laconic)?

Beverley
San Francisco Bay Area

[J. Davis]

What is 'Little Urly-Burly came by in his curly-wurly and asked me if I needed a ride' all about? Is the curly-wurly in question of the chocolate kind? Enquiring minds need to know! (Sorry, can't recall the song's name or artist.)

[Jay]

"Sitting on a pebble by the river playing guitar." -- Julian Lennon, "Valotte." Jeeze! Does it get any worse than that???

[Timothy Scott]

Marc Cohn - Walking In Memphis:

"But do I really feel the way I feel?"

[Timothy Scott]

RE: Abacab

I've heard that this is in reference to the parts of the arrangement... Part A, Part B, Part A...etc.

[ghostof'lectricity]

My understanding is that "See Emily Play" was based on an actual 16-year-old girl who had run away from her respectable family to absorb the London psychedelic scene of '66-'67. Syd Barrett, who, though only 21 himself at the time, was a veteran of bohemian cultural and intellectual (and psychochemical) trends of several years' standing in both his native Cambridge and in London, was making a gently mocking song about all the instant hippies appearing on the scene by spring '67, who think all you have to do is wear the right clothes ("put on a gown that touches the ground"), take the right drug, and listen to the right music and you've made the scene. Syd was implying that the counterculture was much deeper and more complex than that. "She's often inclined to borrow somebody's dreams 'til tomorrow" - this line is a clever comment on people who understand nothing of the suddenly-fashionable trend they're latching onto.

[R. Bruce Denney]

Incomprehensible? How about McArthur Park:
Someone left the cake out in the rain.
I don't think that I can take it 'cause it took so long to bake it and I'll never have that recipe again.
I always hoped this song was a lampoon on the pseudo-deep hippy dippy acid-induced lyrics of the era. If not, it would be merely ridiculous.

[Stephen Kriz]

"Horse With No Name" by America

"MacArthur's Park" by Richard Harris

"Roundabout" by Yes

and "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult

All I can say to all of them is WTF???

[Steve Ettlinger]

The line that takes the cake in this category is "Someone left the cake out in the rain and I'll never have that recipe again"

Although "Bye, bye, Miss American Pie" always makes me cringe because the inanity and ambiguit is so clearly stated.

[Chris R]

Steely Dan's Deacon Blues.

"This is the day of the expanding man..that shape is my shame there where I used to stand.." etc

wtf?

[Ed]

The song I'am your vehicle is just plain creepy. I'am not sure if he is a pervert,child molester or what but it is certainly not romantic and how many women do you know will fall for this pick up line: Hey well I'm the friendly stranger
in the black sedan
ah won't you hop inside my car
I got pictures got candy I am a lovable man
and I can take you to the nearest star

I'm your vehicle baby
I'll take you anywhere you want to go
I'm your vehicle woman
by now I'm sure your know
That I love you (love you)
Need you (need you)
I want to got to have you CHILD
great god in heaven you know I love you

Is the women put in there to deflect the real meaning that he actually is trying to pick up a child walking down the street.

[Woodja Speekup]

"The ants are my friends. They're blowing in the wind. The ants are blowing in the wind." Bob Dylan's classic song "Blowing In The Wind". What's up with that?

[SP]

ABACAB came from the first 6 chords in the song: A, B, A, C, A, B

Just one of the many meaningless things I know.

[k thomas]

re: america. We always thought "alligator lizards in the air" was a reference to dragonflies. And regarding Sting's song, obviously the hope is that if the Russian's love their children, as we supposedly do, that love would make moot any need for "assurance" of mutual destruction.

[THP]

When it comes to Stings lyrics the topper to me is in "If I Ever Lose My Faith":

"I never saw no miracle of science
That didn't go from a blessing to a curse
I never saw no military solution
That didn't always end up as something worse"

I would say discovering Penicillin and defeating the Nazi's have both worked out pretty well.

[jeddy]

Steve Kline is an idiot. The point about "the answer blowing in the wind" is that the answer is ungraspable. What an idiot. Stick to your day job because if you wrote lyrics they would all be painfully trite and obvious. Also, if you ACTUALLY listen to "I shot the sheriff you would know why NOT shooting the deputy is relevent. Even pot head Bob Marley is infiitely more sophisticated than Steve Kline.

[Stig O'Hara]

I prefer the clarity and vrilliance of the original Rutle version - "All You Need Is Cash".
But did they mean Johnny Cash or currency? Eh, either way you've got something!

Why did Cliff Richard sing "Disco Bunny, We Don't Talk Anymore"?

Why did Deep Purple sing "Slope Go To Walter, Fire Indian Guy"?

Why did James Brown sing "Hah! Ginnebuh Smoplomah Kinopole!"

Why Did John Lennon sing "Imagine No Posessions" while keeping all his millions of dollars/pounds? True, he didn't sing "Give Away All Your Posessions"...

Pink Floyd "Don't Need No Education" because them be already speaks gooder English.

Why did Cannibal And The Headhunters only name about 6 dances in "Land Of A Thousand Dances"? DId the bus break down, stranding them in the Hamlet Of Few Dances?

Why did Billy Joel sing?

In Warren Zevon's Werewolves Of London, why was a werewolf "Walking Through The Streets Of Soho In The Rain" with a "Chinese Menu In His Hnad" while "Looking For A Place Called Lee Ho Fooks"? WOuldn't he ave to have already arrived there in order to have the menu in his hand? And if it was taining, why was his hair perfect?

Would it really be "Fun To Stay At The YMCA" if the Village People were there?

The Go-Gos and/or Fun Boy Three - If "Their Lips Are Sealed" how can they sing?

Men AT Work - "Who Can It Be Now?"... Why not open the door and find out? in the three minutes you've spent singing about it, whoever it was has probably left.

Oh, I've rambled on a bit.

[Paul]

ABACAB is the structure of most rock and pop song.

A
B part chorus
A
C part solo
A
B part chorus

[John Brown]

abacab is the key progression of the song, really! a..b..a..c..a..b

[Hilary Paipeti]

Can't remember the name of the song, but does that line go
'Lies crushed and broken on the virgin snow.'
or
'Lies crushed and broken on the virgin's nose.'
???

[Ron Schwarz]

"The Black Eye Peas"?

Or, "The Black Guy Pees"?

I dunno, you tell me.

[Morry]

The greatest anomally I've encountered was in the lyrics of "Autumn leaves".

"Since you went away, the days grow long and soon I'll hear old winter's song" .... when everyone know that with an approaching winter the days actually grow short. "The nights grow long" would have been brilliant, evoking lonely nights.

[Ron Schwarz]

[[And don't get me started on Bob Dylan - "the answer is blowing in the wind." ????

Well, I listened hard to the wind, but I never heard the answer.]]

This one's really simple. He actually said that "The ANTHER is blowing in the wind" (emphasis added).

Dylan, you see, had written an Ode to Hayfever (the original working title of the song). The anther, blowing in the wind, had distributed pollen far and wide.

[Jerry Miller]

I've read the Bee Gees Stayin' Alive a few times, but then when hearing the song, the words don't make any sense, ah, ah, ah, ah, Staying Alive, you can tell by the way use my walk I'm a woman's man no time to talk, ?????? I've kicked around ????? but it's all right, it's OK, you may look the other way ??? ????????????? The New York Times.... ?????

[Ezzthetic]

It's a pity you included the line from Lola - you aren't getting the joke, so to speak.

The song was inspired by Ray Davies' encountering a transexual in a bar. The closing line is deliberately ambiguous.

[Karl Greenberg]

How about Bowie's "Fame"
"Makes him lose, hard to swallow"
is this a comment about bowel motility among the famous? Does it imply that the famous are drinking too much Metamucil?

[Rafael Guerrero]

There is a big joke about how hokie country music is, but there were very good country song writers like Kris Kristofferson. Now however, country music lyrics are at their lowest point ever. They are as dumb as it gets. Take for instance, Tim McGraw's "She's my kind of rain." I think this one gets the prize.

She's my kind of rain
Like love in a drunken sky
She's confetti falling
Down all night

Huh??????

[Rafael Guerrero]

See Emily Play by Pink Floyd was written by Syd Barrett that was mentioned by Roger in the comment on September 15 with regards to the picture shown in the article. As you may know, Syd Barrett unfortunately went bonkers which is why he left the band. The song's incoherency says it all.

[evelyn]

Way back when, a song by Johnny Rivers or maybe it was somebody Burnett, can't remember any more.

There was a line that went "Jones, Jones all I see, page 19 to 23..."

The guy singing is lamenting a lost lover he can't find and is looking through a phonebook to find her name.

4 or 5 pages of Jones is a lot of people with the same last name. A city big enough to have so many of the same name sure wouldn't be into the "J's" already by page 19.

[Jane Heybroek]

Surprised no-one has yet mentioned Underworld either. Aside from their penchant of giving their songs titles that have nothing whatsoever to do with the lyrics (Play Pig, Born Slippy Nuxx, Pearls Girl to name but a few), they don't assist us fans either by their deliberate policy of not publishing their lyrics either. The band's view is that it is better for the audience to experience it the way they want to, including giving the interpretations to the lyrics that suit them best.

So we end up with things like
Cowgirl - "an eraser of love" or "and a razor of love"? And the new single, Crocodile, where might be "two kangeroos, fingers push - come and scratch my back in rhythm." or "To kangeroo, fingers push.." etc.

[Keith Coper]

RE: ABACAB

Not that it makes the song any more coherent, but the story goes Collins and the lads wrote various musical lines and labelled the ABC, andthen arranged them into a complate song - the A line; then the B; then the A again; then the C; then A yet again; and finish with B.

[fangsworth]

Dylan seems to imply a 3-some may be going on here. We know the bed is his...but the lady's "man" may or may not be him. Hmmm...
"Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Stay, lady, stay, stay with your man awhile
Until the break of day, let me see you make him smile..."

[sharizla]

"...little Early-Pearly came in by her curly-wurly and asked me if I needed a ride..."
Blinded by the Light by Bruce Springsteen. Also recorded by Manfred Mann. The entire song is pretty much incomprehensible.

[Roger]

When I was 16 or so I wondered about "Just a come-on from the horse on Seventh Avenue" for a long, long time.....

[Roger]

Just about any line from either "I Am A Walrus" or "American Pie" but while Lennon was playing with the sound of words maybe Don McLean had something on his mind. I just don't know what it was.....

[Allan]

Herman's Hermits:

"Let me in or else I'll weep down your door".

ALWAYS heard that as "...wee...".

Great act of revenge though.

[John Hicks]

How about Bruce Springsteen's "At night I wake up with my sheets soaking wet." line from "I'm on Fire".

[Phil]

How about "I'm like a one-eyed cat peeping in a sea-food store"?

That was just a Black slang sexual reference used by Blues singers that white artists didn't get, so when Bill
Haley recorded this he thought he was "hip" saying "cat".

[RayT]

The line 'Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow' comes from Don McLean's 'Vincent' and the line 'And little Early Pearly came by in his curly-wurly' is from 'Springsteen's 'Blinded by the Light', but defies explanation.
However, for an idea of what a desert is like, who can top America's description in 'A horse with no name'?
'There were plants and birds and rocks and things...there was sand and hills and rings...the heat was hot and the ground was dry...'
Eat your heart out, David Attenborough.

[Dan Price]

I am suprised no one has mentioned, REM's 'the side winder sleeps tonite'...
For years I thought Mr Stipe was uttering some arcane mantra 'Cumyin chad waker rup'...
I have since learned its 'Call me when you try to wake her up...' Its always left me slightly confused, especially in the wee small hours before dawn....

[mumosaurus]

Re Lola: the lyric is 'But I know what I am/In bed I'm a man/And so is Lola'.

[Roger]

How about Bernie Taupin / Elton John, Rocket Man: 'Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids / In fact it's cold as hell / And there's no one there to raise them if you did.' Mmnn.

[Roger]

Re Rocket Man: sorry William, didn't notice you had got that old paradoxical chestnut in already.

[Charlie Mack]

....all this and not one mention of Procul Harems "Whiter Shade Of Pale".
hmmmmmmm.

[Charlie Mack]

....all this and not one mention of Procul Harems "Whiter Shade Of Pale".
hmmmmmmm.

[you, yeah you]

Re: Ventura Highway by America: Alligator Lizards are real lizards from the American Southwest. What they are doing "in the air" is anybody's guess. By-the-way, the same song contains the little ditty: "Sorry boy but I've been hit by purple rain," maybe he was talking to the artist formerly known as Prince (what ???!?).

And then of course, the great gospel/folk classic:

"He's got the whole world in his pants"

Oh, and was AC/DC singing "She had those sightless eyes" or was it, "She had me circumcized"? OUCH! END OF THAT RELATIONSHIP!

[Pat Herley]

I should be flayed alive for slagging off Procol Harum, since they're my favorite band....but Keith Reid could confuse you with just a title, much less the lyrics - to wit "In held 'twas in I". WTF????

[Frank]

OK, how about Fleetwood Mac's Don't stop thinking about tomorrow? Are they saying "Don't. Stop, thinking about tomorrow" as in don't think about tomorrow as in live for right now or "don't stop thinking about tomorrow" as in thinking about tomorrow to the point of obsession? It's very confusing to me.

[robert USA]

Most confusing lyrics? Have any of you Brits even taken the time to read a song by YES? If someone can tell me what it is John Anderson is trying to say in any of his songs, I'll take a shot at deciphering Syd Barrett for you.

[josh]

I'm down on the water
(I'm down on the water)
I don't know so I don't bother.
(I don't know so I don't bother)
Looking out the window of my dad's old Chevy.
(Lookin' out the window of my dad's old Chevy.)
Eats a lot of gas cause it's that more heavy.
(Eats a lot of gas cause it's that more heavy.)
I'm down on the county line and,
(We're all down on the county line.)
We're all screamin' Carolina.
(We're all screamin' Carolina.)
I'm down on the water.
(I'm down on the water)
We don't like what we just saw but...
(We don't like what we just saw but...)
I can't swim so I dog paddle.
(I can't swim so I dog paddle.)
I can't swim so I dog paddle.
I eat? ketchup and burger inside it feels like murder.
I can't swim so I dog paddle.
I can't swim so I DOG PADDLE.
I'm down on the water.
(I'm down on the water)
I don't know so I don't bother.
(We don't got no meat to swallow.)
Lookin' out the window of my dad's old Chevy.
(I can't swim so I dog paddle.)
Eats a lot of gas cause it's that more heavy.
(...(?)... inside it feels like murder)
I'm down on the county line and.
We're all singin Carolina.
(I can't swim so I dog paddle [repeated])
We're down on the county line again.
We're all screaming Caroline again.
What you say and what you want again.
You can't get it cuz you don't get it. No.
(i'm down on the water..)

[josh]

"dog paddle"
Modest Mouse

[Adam]

McArthur Park's cake, for those without the soul, or perhaps wit to comprehend, it a metaphor for a lost relationship.

[Chuck]

How about this nugget from Led Zeppelin's "Dancing Days":

I told your mamma I'd get you home but I didn't tell her I had no car
I saw a lion he was standing alone with a tadpole in a jar.

What?

[Brad Erkeneff]

The meaning of "Blowing in the Wind" is clearly a call to one's senses much like "You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows" both by the same artist.

The song asks reapeatedly, "When is enough enough?" The answer is obvious my friend when you into your heart with honesty.

[z miller]

'oo ee oo ahah ting tang walla walla bing bang...'
'tootie fruitie all rootie..'
'a wopp bomp a loo bopp a lopp bam boom..'
'hutt sutt rah hutt sutt ritter rah hutt sutt bolin bolin bolin...'
'a well the bird bird bird a well the birds the word...'

ad infinitum ad nauseum

fun stuff, every bit of it,
i love pop music,
really entertaing comments from all
thanks.

Obviously neither Finklestein nor his astute comment reader have ever actually listened to "Lola." The whole point of the song is that LOLA IS A MAN. There's nothing confusing about this: it's the premise of the song.

If you're confused by the double negative in "We don't need no education" and "I can't get no satisfaction," then I can't believe you've made it this far in life. Your confusion is likely why a journalist such as yourself could never write a rock song that anyone would enjoy.

The Bob Marley line is ambiguous not confusing. Here's a lesson you apparently missed, Finklestein: ambiguity makes poetry and song lyrics interesting. It's one reason a song might keep your interest even after you've heard it a hundred times.

And who really cares about Sting?

I would have to contend that the most fathomable lyrics to Donavon's "Sunny Goodge Street" are the la la las

[Rondo]

playing with words combinations is a creative act popularized by bob dylan whose interest in poetry (kerouac, ginsberg, emily dickenson) and traditional music (blues, folk, country, etc.) propel his songs into our imagination and collective memories

the best lyrics are suggestive because troubadors sing to the heart

[Alan Melville]

from 'Ribbons' by Sisters of Mercy

'She looked good in ribbons' now,
is that just innocent or has she been torn to ribbons (the song makes extensive comment about 'flowers on the razor wire'). It's always been a moderately interesting ambiguity.

[Grant Kennedy]

I AM THE WALRUS: The Beatles.

Back in the day when you couldn't browse the internet to uncover song lyrics, it was often difficult to discern just what words were being sung by our favourites. Static from the radio or the often-avoidable scritch and scratch caused by the accumulation of dust that somehow always trapped itself between the turntable needle and the grooved vinyl, only further exasperated the effort (Incidentally, the groove of the vinyl led to the popular word use of “Groovy”, musicians being in the groove like when the turntable needle fits nicely into the groove on a record).

In any case, the Beatles’ “I AM THE WALRUS” was certainly no exception. I thought that my confusion would be lifted by purchasing their (then) latest "Best Of" album, “1967-1970 (The Blue Album) Album". Indeed, after pulling out the sleeve and finding the lyrics to “I AM THE WALRUS”, I no longer had to guess what John was singing. No, now I was faced with a new dilemma, trying to decipher what in the heck it all meant. We now have the advantage of the internet and there are various sites (some better than others) that attempt to explain the lyrics, yet the intent of some of the lyrics are still left up to the listener (Reminiscent of Don McLean’s “American Pie” – now there’s another one).

I AM THE WALRUS

am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all together
See how they run like pigs from a gun see how they fly
I'm crying

Sitting on a cornflake waiting for the van to come
Corporation teeshirt, stupid bloody Tuesday
Man you been a naughty boy. You let your face grow long
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo goo goo joob

Mister City Policeman sitting, pretty little policemen in a row
See how they fly like Lucy in the sky, see how they run
I'm crying, I'm crying
I'm crying, I'm crying

Yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye
Crabalocker fishwife pornographic priestess
Boy you been a naughty girl, you let your knickers down
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo goo goo joob

Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun
If the sun don't come
You get a tan from standing in the English rain
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo goo goo joob goo goo goo goo joob

Expert textpert choking smokers
Don't you think the joker laughs at you? (Ha ha ha! He he he! Ha ha ha!)
See how they smile like pigs in a sty, see how they snied
I'm crying

Semolina pilchard climbing up the Eiffel Tower
Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna
Man you should have seen them kicking Edgar Alan Poe
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo goo goo joob goo goo goo joob
Goo goo goo joob goo goo goo joob
Goo gooooooooooo jooba jooba jooba jooba jooba jooba
Jooba jooba
Jooba jooba
Jooba jooba

[Tom]

RE: ABACAB

It's the rhyme scheme of the lyrics

[RJ]

Imagine my luck, stumbling across this site on an otherwise calm Sunday morning. I have thoroughly enjoyed all the queries and comments, but I shall be laughing forever over "The ants are my friends ... they're blowing in the wind". Thanks to all!

"But in this ever changing world in which we live in"

Paul McCartney

[David Nova]

" Her name was McGill.
She called herself Lil.
But everyone knew her as Nancy.

HUH?

Posted by: Steve Dubbin | 14 Sep 2007 22:44:52 "

Obviously, she was an illegal immigrant with fake IDs.

[uh...mark?]

Jeeez most of these songs are all so effing old! So allow me up the ante:

"Mares eat oats,
And does eat oats,
And little lambs eat ivy,
A kid'l eat ivy too,
Wouldn't you?"

Or how about Slim Gaillard singing:
"yep-rock heresey..." ?

[roycroft]

The lyrics of Syd Barrett's solo song "Baby Lemonade" are impossible.

"Send a cage through the post/make your name like a ghost/ Please Baby Lemonade"

It all made sense in your head, Syd.

[Don Dussault]

I'd rather hurt you honestly than to hurt you with a lie!
Why do you want to hurt me in the first place?

[Roger (MNS)]

Re my namesake's concerns (16 September) about the 'come-on' in A Horse With No Name. Yes, the love that dare not whinny its name. Made illegal now of course by the previous labour govt. so even more unwhinnyable.

[Corrupted Mind]

One of the great lyrical mysteries of hip-hop is the Nas lyric:

"You be a'ight like blood money in a pimp's come" - Nas, take it in blood

[Charlie]

For all you old timers: "I am the walrus, I am the egg man, . . .". I've been playing my LP backwards for 40 years, and still don't know what it means, except (perhaps) that Paul and John just switched to a different drug?

[William Woodford]

Pink Floyd’s claim that they don’t need “no education” is self-contradictory--they clearly need to learn how to use proper English. Unless I’m very wrong, Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” is a denunciation of the British “public school” system, making it baffling as to why American adolescents found it popular.

You forgot to mention the dumbest line in the history of rock ’n’ roll--“The head was hot” from America’s “The Horse with No Name.”

[Patrick Kidd]

Much as I like Neil Diamond (there's a terrible admission) some of his lines are perplexing: "'I am', I said, to no one there/ and no one heard at all, not even the chair." Why would he expect the chair to hear?

"Cracklin' Rosie you're a scoreboard woman"???

And then there is the horrid rhyme in Play Me: "Songs you sang to me, songs you brang to me."

Emerson, Lake, & Palmer - Still You Turn Me On:

"Every day a little madder, a little sadder, someone get me a ladder"

Why did want a ladder? Was it to escape what was making him sad? Or did Greg Lake just run out of words that rhyme with sadder and madder?

[erasmus]

Re: I Am The Walrus...
In an interview John said the first lyric line was written during one acid trip, the next line during the next trip, etc.
There; that should explain it.